When purchasing electronic or other similar products, consumers are commonly solicited by the merchant or retailer selling the product with regard to purchasing an extended warranty or other service plan. In many instances, consumers are subjected to high pressure sales of such plans and are often confused as to the terms and/or hidden fees of such plans. As such, instead of evaluating the benefits offered by service plans, many consumers categorically refuse such service plans to avoid the associated record-keeping burden, possible hidden fees, and/or possible hidden service plan terms. Alternatively, many consumers purchase such plans without understanding the plan details and requirements. In addition, typical service plans require the consumer to provide personal profile information, model number, serial number, purchase date, store information, receipt information, etc. often times at the point of sale, which can be time consuming and contributes to consumer frustration with a retailer.
In some instances, to decrease the time spent at the point of sale during purchase of service plans, many plans allow the required information to be provided via a website following the sale. The service plan information is subsequently provided to the consumer in the form of separate service plan papers, receipt message(s), etc. However, consumers often forget to complete and return the necessary documents to the service plan provider. Failure to complete and return such documents may lead to invalidation of the plan or otherwise cause delays in provider response to claims made to the service plan for repair or replacement of the covered device. In particular, to utilize a service plan, the consumer is often required to present the service plan papers, the covered device, and often times even the original package for the device.
With the requirements for utilization of the service plan in mind, the consumer is not only charged with the duty of keeping papers and/or packaging, but also must remember which papers and/or packaging correspond to which devices. Such record keeping and storage requirements are a burden on the consumer. Furthermore, in many circumstances, these requirements are a burden that the consumer does not properly bear such that a claim cannot properly be made to the service plan due to misplaced papers, etc.